We ARE leaving today/ Wir WERDEN heute abfahren

Okay, we are starting our journey today. We will be using our SPOT to send our position details to this blog so that you can follow our route. Till we get back online in Spain. :-)

Okay, wir machen uns heute auf den Weg. Wir werden in regelmäßigen Abständen unseren SPOT benutzen, der schickt dann über Satellit unsere Position zu diesem Blog, s.d. Ihr uns folgen könnt.
Bis dann in Spanien :-)

Leaving for Spain/Abfahrt Richtung Spanien

Safe Passage, Kazaio! See you all in Palma!
Gute Reise, Kazaio! Bis zum Wiedersehen in Palma!

Lately, the weather has become one of the most important aspects of our life. To be precise, weather means 'wind' and 'waves". We are checking those several times daily and it hasn't looked good for quite some time. The original plan was to leave Les Sables around April 18 to make it to Malaga by May 5 latest. My father has joined us to help with the crossing. On May 5, we were supposed to pick up Petra and Brigitte to spend some time together around The Islas Baleares. Well, those dates are not going to happen. We need two full days two nights of calmer winds and less than 2m high waves (6 feet). Look at the window below to get an idea of what has been going on here. You can also go to www.passageweather.com. I should probably mention that the Bay of Biscay is one of the worst areas to sail in bad weather conditions as the waves are thrown back from the two shores in the East and South, which makes for some steep waves and uncomfortable sailing. Rolf, of course, is aware that this is our first big step on our new boat, first overnight trip for me, too, and that he has to get it right to keep me on the boat ;-). Poor guy, so much pressure...
Long story short, we now see a nice weather window coming up and will finally leave either tomorrow or latest Tuesday (May 1). Gonzalo and his father have already left on Friday with Sylvain, a professional skipper, but that was too risky for us. He did make it all the way to Gijon, though, which is great. Congratulations on your first 253NM! Rolf and I are both sad we didn't go together, though. We miss you guys!

In letzter Zeit hat das Wetter für uns immer mehr an Bedeutung gewonnen. "Wetter" in diesem Zusammenhang bedeutet genauer gesagt "Wind" und "Wellen". Beides überprüfen wir täglich - und lange sah es gar nicht gut aus. Unser Plan war eigentlich, um den 18. April rum von Les Sables aufzubrechen um spätestens am 5. Mai in Malaga zu sein. Mein Vater ist bereits für diesen Abschnitt zu uns gestossen, um uns zu helfen. Und am 5. Mai wollten wir Petra und Brigitte in Malaga abholen, um gemeinsam Zeit in den Balearen zu verbringen. Leider war uns der Wettergott nicht sehr günstig gesonnt. Wir benötigten zwei Tage und zwei Nächte, um die Biskaya zu überqueren. Nicht nur brauchen wir 36-48 Stunden nicht zu starken Wind, auch die Wellen dürfen nicht zu hoch sein. Im Bild unten könnt Ihr sehen, wie es teilweise hier aussah. Auch auf www.passagewaether.com könnt Ihr Euch das Wetter ansehen. An dieser Stelle sollte ich wohl erwähnen, dass die Biskaya eine der schlimmsten Ecken in der Welt sein kann, wenn das Wetter nicht mitspielt, denn die Wellen werden von den beiden Küsten im Osten und Süden zurückgeworfen, was steile Wellen und unschöne Segelbedingungen bedeuten kann. Rolf weiss natürlich, dass dies unser erster wirklicher Trip mit unserem neuen Boot ist, und ausserdem der erste Übernacht-Trip für mich. Also muss er's richtig machen um mich auf dem Boot zu halten ;-) Armer Kerl, steht unter so viel Druck...
Um nun endlich zum Punkt zu kommen, wir erwarten nunmehr endlich ein "Schön-Wetter-Fenster" und werden wohl entweder morgen oder spätestens am Dienstag (1. Mai) in See stechen. Gonzalo und sein Vater sind bereits am Freitag mit Sylvain, einem professionellen Skipper, losgefahren, aber das war uns zu riskant. Sie haben es mittlerweile bis nach Gijon geschafft. Klasse! Glückwunsch zu Euren ersten 253 Nautischen Meilen! Rolf und ich sind allerdings beide traurig, daß wir nicht zusammen unterwegs sind. Wir vermissen Euch!

Weather forecast for April 25 - preferably, it would show less colour...
Wettervorhersage für den 25. April - besser wäre es, wenn sie weniger Farben zeigen würde...

Pee and Poo story continued.../ Potti-Problem zweiter Teil...

Okay, most of you will know by now that I failed poorly with my Pee-Post and Poo-Carpet concept. Not only has Chester ignored both, but the Poo-Carpet also disappeared overboard one day, unintentionally (!) ... potentially making Chester really happy... But I am not giving up that easily! Or, actually, I'm not allowed to give up just yet as our first big overnight trip is coming up sooner or later - unless we will be stuck here... So, long story short, my plan B now is, tadah: the 'Pookopter Landing Pad'! (self-explanatory picture below)... So far it's no better than the Poo-Carpet, I'm desperately waiting for the first 'landing'...;-)

Also, manche von Euch werden es ja vielleicht schon wissen: Das mit der "Hunde-Potti-Wiese" ist nichts geworden. Nicht nur hat Chester sie geflissentlich ignoriert, irgendwann ist sie uns dann auch noch still und heimlich über Bord gegangen...Sehr wahrscheinlich zu Chester's größter Freude. Aber so schnell gebe ich ja nicht auf! Oder vielmehr, ich darf ja gar nicht aufgeben, denn unsere erste Übernachtfahrt steht ja mehr oder weniger bald an...sofern wir nicht weiterhin hier steckenbleiben... Also, gesagt getan, nächste potentielle Lösung - doch bisher leider mit ebensowenig Erfolg wie zuvor: Der "Pottikopter Landeplatz" (sebsterklärendes Bild siehe unten)... Nunmehr warte ich sehnlichst auf die erste "Landung"...;-)

Plan B: The Pookopter Landing Pad - this time secured to the boat...
Potti-Problem zweiter Versuch: Der Pottikopter Landeplatz -
diesmal ordentlich am Boot befestigt...

Time for more pictures/ Zeit für mehr Bilder

The solar panels are up - just not hooked up yet/
Die Solarpanels sind angebracht, nur noch nicht angeschlossen. 

Picking up the foam and fabric for the outside cushions/
Hier holen wir gerade das Material für unsere Außenkissen ab

Cabin 1 - Rolf's cabin - oops/
Kabine Nr. 1: Rolf's - oh je...

Cabin 2 - Starboard guest cabin/
Kabine Nr. 2: Gast

Cabin 3 - Port guest cabin/
Kabine Nr. 3: Gast

Cabin 4 - my cabin (guess I am the lucky one...)/
Kabine Nr. 4: meine (Hab wohl die Glückskarte gezogen...)

Yes, our days are tiring...;-)/
Ja, unsere Tage sind ganz schön anstregend...;-)

Wow, the boxes actually arrived!

Okay, I didn't believe it any more, but we got them today, on Saturday before Easter. It was not easy, actually quite frustrating. We sat in a total limbo, not able to do much, having to borrow a blanket from fellow sailor and lagoon owner Gonzalo. And time is running...we have our eyes on leaving Les Sables around April 18...
So, after hearing that our boxes were in:
*Rotterdam
*Paris
*Bordeaux
*La Roche-sur-Yon....
And that we would receive the boxes
*tomorrow
*tomorrow
*don't know
*maybe tomorrow...
Or that we would not get them, because
*there's no truck available
*the boxes are stuck in customs
*the lady we talked to had no idea
*the truck broke down...
I had finally given up, but here they are! Mind you, we had to pick them up half an hour away from here even though we had paid for delivery to the boat. But if we wanted the boxes before Easter,...
A big Thank You! to Gonzalo for all his help!

Words from the Bilge

Well – here are some words from the bilge, or wherever I might be found, head down, calling for another tool, swearing because I just pulled another sliver into my hand or cut my self on a sharp edge, on Next Life. Let the fun begin.

I must say that I am lucky for having made contact with Gonzalo on the Cruiser’s Forum last November. Gonzalo pulled in with his L450 onto the same dock 3 days ago, coming from La Rochelle, where his boat was put in the water.

First, he introduced us an experienced catamaran skipper, who joined us on our sea trials and spent the whole day checking Next Life over. He found a few minor things to fix, and also told us which common problems to look out for.

Second, Gonzalo speaks the language and is very good in organizing things. Without him I would still be chasing parts.

Third, he is a really fun guy to have around and he is very helpful.

What have I done so far:

The boat is 120V. Everything here is 220V. So getting our basic electrical and also propane needs covered meant executing some magic.

First – I was smart enough to bring several cigarette-lighter USB adaptors. Charging our iPhones and iPads is not a problem. Just plug the adaptor into any one of the 8 cigarette lighter plugs Next Life and it works. Thank god for those smokers. No smoking on this vessel though.

Second, I brought 4 inverters – from a measly 50W all the way to 400W. The small ones are great for running our 120V laptop chargers. The middle one takes care of charging our battery-powered vacuum. The large one – after I jury-rigged it directly to the board battery with no fuse in between, will, with hissing and moaning, just barely manage to charge the Makita batteries for my very important power tools. Plugged into a cigarette lighter the large inverter trips the breaker in 5 seconds flat. Now the cables are getting a wee bit warm, but it is cold here at night.

Third – did I say our boat is 120V? Yep – I did. Shore power is 220V.  How to charge those big boat batteries then? We use all those before mentioned inverters to make sure they are getting a work out? Never mind the fridges requiring good clean electrons for storing our 20 varieties of excellent French cheeses. I disconnected the boat charger from the central control panel – and after some electrical open-heart surgery – directly connected it (jury-rigged is a better word for it) to the bare ends of a 220V shore power cord. The charger does not mind, as it is multi voltage all the way from 90 to 260V. The only problem is that the cable now is a foot trap as the cord runs diagonal through the boat - from the dock through a window in the port forward cabin, down the hallway, up the stairs, past the galley, beside the dining room table, down the stairs on the starboard side, to the aft cabin, into the access to the electrical room up to the back of the electrical panel next to the dining room table. Getting lost? Me too.

Our batteries are getting charged. That is all that counts.

Fourth - What about that all-important morning beverage from the newly purchased hi-tec cappuccino maker you might ask, and warming our cold butts too. It gets down to about freezing at night. This second foot trap is even better than the other one. While the main trunk runs parallel to the battery charger cable, this one consist not of one cable, but of three connected ones, with branches running off it at the various points to feed:

A: The heater in Silke’s cabin.

B: The aforementioned utterly important coffee maker.

C: The heater in my cabin.

Foot trap galore

Fifth – We need to cook; very occasionally though. There are so many good restaurants in walking distance, that we hardly have to, but just in case…

Propane filling station

In France you cannot fill propane bottles. Period. You can only rent them. We have an empty one though. Never mind that this one would not fit anyway. We were also told that there is only Butane, no Propane. Luckily, we did find a place with Propane. I just rented a filled bottle, any odd bottle. There must be at least 6 different suppliers, and most offer Propane and Butane. Some bottles are small, others are big, some are metal, others are fiberglass, some appear to be plastic. So now we have a full rented bottle of Propane and a small empty bottle of Propane that came with the boat. What to do? First buy a French connector hose for the big bottle and find out it is the wrong one. Back to another store and get the right one. Then, Gonzalo spots a little place that says in French – “plumbing, heating, electrical, air conditioning”. Well, they must have something that can match a French Butane-Propane hose to a North American Propane boat-bottle connector hose. Nope. But hey, what about I cut those beautiful, never-used, hoses, buy a brass connector, a few hose clamps, and Bob is my uncle? The next thing you would see is a big bottle of Propane lying slanted on the cockpit table, with the two pieces of connected hose leading in a nice downward slope to the North American Propane bottle, with the Propane slowly but surely dripping down that hose filling the small bottle. Yahoo – now we can cook.

Sixth – for a while I had our 120V Honda portable generator connected to our shore power inlet. That gave us true 120V throughout the boat. A great way to operate the water-heater element. Alas, the generator was only hooked up for a few hours. As now I started number seven.

Seventh - While most of the things before are temporary to have us survive, this one is going to be a permanent installation. A 3000 Watt Multi-Plus inverter. Finding a place for this heavy beast took the better part of two hours. Under the starboard aft bed it goes. Then ripping the 120V cable from the shore power breaker and running it through the engine room bulkhead was almost easy. Now I just need more 120V cable to hook it back up to the shore power breaker, but stores are closed. So no generator power for now. Also no hook up to the batteries, as stores are closed and the 12V-400A cables need to be specially manufactured.  But for good measure, it took Silke and myself over 2 hours to snake the remote control cable through an about 1 m section of the boat. We each have at least a dozen scrapes, cuts, splinters to show for it. Never mind the bruises and pulled muscles.

Eight -  The solar panels. Gonzalo started on that project today. A major undertaking that no company here wanted to do. I, as so often, have this special idea and nothing else will do. Gonzalo and I spent all day buying parts (a few stores where magically open until 12:30 (noon) today). The wee started drilling holes, tapping threads, and scratching our heads about how to do the next step. Everything going well, we might have the panels up tomorrow evening. They will however not be electrically connected yet. That will be another day. I also have to finish the big inverter installation in between.

I might have missed a few small things, but this is enough for the few days we have been here.

And how are we doing otherwise?/ Und wie es uns sonst geht?

We are just so relieved we got our boxes - in time before Easter! - so that the work can start now. Lots has been packed away already. Rolf tried out the generator, so we were able to have a shower. Just cooking doesn't work yet as Europe uses Butane and our boat is made to North-American standards, thus using Propane. We do have Propane, but the connectors are different. Well, just another challenge for Rolf. He cannot exist without it anyway. ;-)

Wir sind einfach nur erleichtert, dass unsere Kisten da sind - rechtzeitig vor Ostern! - und die Arbeit kann beginnen. Vieles habe wir schon verstaut. Rolf hat den Generator ausprobiert, s.d. wir sogar Duschen konnten. Nur kochen können wir noch nicht, denn das Boot ist auf Propangas (Nord-Amerikanischar Standard) ausgerichtet, und Europa auf Butangas. Wir haben zwar Propangas, aber die Anschlüsse sind unterschiedlich. Ist halt eine weitere Herausforderung für Rolf, ohne geht's für ihn ja nicht ;-)

Boat Christening/ Bootstaufe

Once we got the name stickers for the boat, we had a proper christening ceremony. To good times and safe passages! Click on the link below.
Sobald wir die Namensaufkleber für unser Boot erhalten hatten, gab's eine ordentliche Bootstaufe. Auf schöne Zeiten und sichere Fahrten! Klick auf den Link unten.

A rocky start into our adventure

Sorry - This post is out of sequence now, as I accidentally delete it. I am in the process of recovering it. Switching between a sometimes working wifi, a sometimes working French cell network and going between laptop and iPad, one runs into new obstacles all the time.  

Pictures to follow soon - again.

This morning, I am leaving for good: 12 months on the road, I mean ocean. Many things have been prepared, as you can imagine. The to-do-list just did not get any shorter, despite my best efforts, and time is running out. In the end, I mostly worry about the things you forgot to do.

First pebble:
My iPhone woke me as I had set the timer, but the alarm clock on my bedside did not go off. After my shower, the screen on my iPhone on my bedside was still on. It should have been off. No time to investigate.
At 7:30 Kim and I dashed to the dentist office to make sure the payments for her braces would be taken care off. One thing I forgot to do last week.
Sparkles is inside. Quick, close the cat door. He knows things are going on that he does not like. Why would his crate be in the hallway otherwise with all those bags?

Second pebble:
Kim is going into the garage to get her bike to go to school. I follow her to say my last good bye for 3 months. As I am in the door, my iPhone rings with Alex, a sailing buddy, on the line. He had purchased the old anchor from me yesterday afternoon (one thing I did get done just in time). "Rolf. You called!" - "Eh. No." - "Yes you did. Twice. Once I heard you talking in the back ground.". By this time I realized that my iPhone was really warm. Something is wrong with it. It must have switched itself back on in my pocked and redialled the last number. "Shit! (No, not you, Alex). Kim hold Sparkles! Quick. To late. " My hands full and distracted by the call and the iPhone spookiness, Sparkles seized the moment and escaped between my legs, dashing past Kim to safety under the motor home in the front yard. After that, he made a quick dash to the neighbour's garden. Chasing him now would just drive him up a tree or further away. Just over 1 hour until I have to leave for the ferry and still so many things to do. "Bye Kim - kiss - I got to run. Sorry. No time."

Think Rolf, think fast. Chasing Sparkles will not do any good. The chances that he goes back in through the cat door, once I have opened it, are really, really slim. He just ate, and the only thing that drives this very fat cat is food. I have one more chance, though, so I call our neighbours, Tom and Doreen. "Doreen, Sparklesescaped. Can you try to coax him into your place? He is not happy, as the crate is waiting for him, and that usually means injections at the vet." Doreen is just too happy to try. I go off and drop some last minute items off at the office and at the mail box, buy some things for the trip, get my first coffee of the day (The coffee maker has been prepared for long absence already). As I come back, there is no Sparkles in our place, but the message light is blinking. This must be good, and it is. Sparkles is at Tom and Doreen's place. As I come in, he dashes to the sliding door desperately wanting to get out into the garden. He is NOT a happy camper. I rejoice as I feel that we people are still a tiny bit smarter than our pets, or so we hope. 

Completely resetting the iPhone seems to clear the problem with it. My time is running out. Recharging the drained batteries takes its good time. Other things to do. Shut off water, set thermostats, etc. etc. I am running around like a chicken with the head chopped off.

Third pebble:

Kevin picks me up 5-to-10 to take me to the ferry. On the drive I get voice message. Glad I charged the phone. It is Lufthansa. "Your flight is delayed until 17:30." That is 1 1/2 hours later. I could take a later ferry now, but we are almost there. 

Oh yeah! By the way, I had planned to take the bus from down town Victoria to Vancouver airport. Luckily, I went yesterday to get a ticket at their office. All was fine until I mentioned my extra pieces of luggage, of which one would be a pet crate. "No sir. Not with us. Cannot do that." Plan B: Ferry and an expensive taxi ride on the other side.

Forth pebble:

At the airport, all is going well. I tell the lady" "I am doing well. I know we are delayed, but at least I am flying." The lady at the counter replies. "You could say that. Let me see where you are going. Oh you are lucky, you are only going to Frankfurt. Anywhere else and you would be stuck. We are lucky this plane made it out ofFrankfurt. Big strike there. Most flights are cancelled." I check in my luggage and I know that I have to go over to the Lufthansa ticket counter to pay the extra charge for the cat crate handling. Big line up as many people are trying to re-route through Paris, London, you name it, to catch a connecting flight. Many are from Irak, Russia, Poland, Italy. You can imagine how quickly that line moves, with everybody very tense. Molasses in a deep freeze.

Vancouver airport line up of rebooking travelers 

 Luckily, after about 45 minutes,  somebody from Lufthansa spots the cat crate and whisks me to the front of the line to take my credit card.

Now I am sitting in the lounge and I will have a glass of red wine in a minute, as soon as this post has been sent. 

Cheers.

P.S. I just hope the whole trip will not be an obstacle course like this one today. I am holding my breath, though. Crossing my finger. Drücke meine Daumen. Whatever helps. Maybe, I even let Silke hang a charm from the bimini over the steering wheel. You might want to ask Silke in a quiet moment about that "removed charm obstacle course" of mine.

PPS: (from Silke) My lucky charm has long been packed and will get a prominent place on the boat. I really did not want to experience a repeat of the "removed charm obstacle course" from some years ago, so packing my lucky charm prior to leaving has been on my todo list for the last 3 months...Looks like we are ready to go after all. :-)

At Frankfurt train station

PPPS: Despite the information that luggage service will be spotty in Frankfurt due to the strike, Sparkles and the luggage arrived quickly.  The weather is absolutely great here. Sunshine and about 20 degrees. We managed to get the high speed train just after 2 pm. Lucks like I was able to leave the rocky path behind.

The adventure has begun

Seeing (and touching) our boat for the very first time

Posted by Silke, Apr 2

8:07 am on Saturday March 31 and we are saying 'so long' to my sister Petra and Hennef.
Roughly 10hrs later we arrive in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, at 23 degrees Celsius! Not long and we can see and step on our new home, our floating apartment, our catamaran 'Next Life'. What a great feeling!

The following Sunday and Monday prove to be challenging, so many stores are closed, either entirely or during lunch hours. Getting our phones to work (without being overcharged) is another challenge. And the language. And locating stores...

At least we spent some fun hours with Gonzalo and Karina from sister ship Kazaio as well as our Canadian Lagoon dealer Scott. Sea trials are scheduled for tomorrow, as are orders for electrical items, and the name stickers for the boat, cushion material, and, and, and. Days are full and over in no time. A boat surveyor flew in from London today to measure our boat. It's 'only' ;-) hull number 130 and a sister ship has been delivered to Vancouver, but measurements are not transferable, so the surveyor had to come for a job of two hours. From London! No kidding! Yeah, makes so much sense! What a waste of money.

Ah, and another challenge: apparently, our 31 boxes are nowhere near Les Sables. They were supposed to arrive last week. So, no tools to start working, no bed sheets etc. to sleep on the boat, with a tight schedule to begin with and the hotel only booked until Thursday. Chaos, here we come! And for Easter holidays this resort town is fully booked. We will have to buy stuff that we do not need.

Regardless of all this, Rolf and I are very happy. The boat is beautiful, we cannot wait to move in, we enjoyed a champagne dinner with baguette and cheese in the cockpit tonight watching the sun set, we already feel at home.

More info to follow whenever we can find the time.

New cell phone numbers

We now have French numbers for our cell phones, they are
for Rolf +33 6 31 94 96 50
for Silke +33 6 31 94 89 10
starting April 2 until further notice.